Gloucester Catholic baseball loosens up, rolls past St. Augustine

Gloucester Catholic's John Murphy delivers the pitch during the South Jersey Non-Public A baseball final against St. Augustine, Wednesday, June 5, 2013. In a rematch of the teams and pitchers from that game Sunday, Murphy got the win allowing five hits and one run over five innings and striking out seven. (Staff Photo by Lori M. Nichols/South Jersey Times)

There were no baseballs to be found during the Rams’ infield-outfield session, but they had a good idea where the ball was once the teams got down to business.

Catholic, ranked fourth in the South Jersey Times Top 15 and sixth in The Star-Ledger Top 20 state rankings, collected eight hits and took advantage of 12 walks and a hit batter as it quickly bounced back from an early deficit for an 11-1 five-inning victory over the No. 2-ranked Hermits.

“(Saturday) was a rough day (an 8-6 loss to St. Mary’s-Rutherford), I think we just needed to loosen up a little bit,” Rams starter John Murphy said of the phantom warmup. “I definitely think that helped, and especially the way we acted in the dugout. That really loosened us up a lot.”

Murphy had cupcakes smashed in his face moments later, another demonstration of the loose atmosphere around the team Sunday. Things didn’t start off well, loading the bases with no outs in the top of the first inning but not scoring and seeing Murphy — a University of Maryland commit — give up three hits and a run in the bottom of the inning.

But the Rams (9-4 overall) didn’t trail for long, finally taking advantage of the free passes issued by St. Augustine pitchers. Starter Joe Gatto, who will attend North Carolina if he doesn’t sign after the MLB Draft in June, was hitting the low 90s on the radar gun but walked six with 83 pitches in three innings. A wild pitch that bounced 20 feet above home tied the game, and Sean Breen chopped a two-run single to center.

“We went in with a mindset that we were going to take good approaches, we weren’t going to just swing at anything because they threw hard,” said shortstop Phil Dickinson, who walked twice, singled and scored twice. “Our main thought was to ... grind out our at-bats, try to get him out quickly with a high pitch count which we did.”

Breen added another two-run single in the fourth as part of a 4-for-4 day, and Catholic sent 10 men to the plate in the five-run inning and another nine in the fifth to score three more. Murphy settled down after the first, allowing just two more hits the rest of the way, walking three and striking out seven while touching 90 mph. Sean Carew was 2-for-3 with an RBI for St. Augustine (9-3).

“I knew I had to get a rally going so we could start scoring runs,” Breen said. “I just tried being as relaxed as possible and just hitting it.”

“You’re not going to beat many teams in baseball with (that many) walks,” said Hermits coach Mike Bylone. “You have to play a perfect game when you play them. This obviously wasn’t our best effort, but that’s why we play these teams — to see where we’re at and what we need to work on. We have to work on a lot.”

The teams honored those who’ve survived cancer as well as those who lost their battles, among them Dickinson’s father Tom who passed away in October and 2011. Rams alum Cody Brown, who battled Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma over the winter and was declared in full remission in March, threw out the first pitch. Gloucester Catholic wore special green jerseys to honor them with “TD” and “CB 3” on the sleeves.

By the end of the day, the players were hopeful that they were past needing another phantom warmup to counter another bad outing this season.

“It definitely helps us to have a day like this, it’s great to have confidence back in our lineup,” Dickinson said.